Another wild Saturday night here in the Twin Cities. I have been inundated with work lately which is something I prayed for six months ago. I am showing enormous gratitude for that right now. The coffee shop I mentioned in some of my previous posts is opening a new location in Blaine, Minnesota and they asked me to shoot content and create Reels and TikTok’s for their social media’s. It’s been a serious sprint to get everything done and the grand opening is tomorrow. I’m really looking forward to it because aside from being a client, the owners are great people and it’s a perfect haunt for this chapter of my life. As mentioned, I’m hooked on their Aidaroos tea and this location is even closer to my house.
I didn’t get home from that shoot until almost 1:00a.m. Friday night and there was a part of me that was going to sleep in as long as possible. Right before I went to sleep, though, I remembered that my friend Abdullah was graduating with his second Masters degree and invited me to the ceremony. My initial thought was, “…sleep in, you earned it.”, but this guy has become one of my closest friends. I forced myself out of bed and made the drive to Saint Paul, battled through endless cars in three tiny parking lots and eventually made my way inside an auditorium. We’re all in a group chat and I realized that he was pretty selective about who he invited to be there, which made me glad that I found the motivation to get up.
This guy is such an ambitious young man. He’s in his twenties, he’s competitively fighting MMA, he has a great career, he’s a devout Muslim and he’s a committed activism for Palestine and many other parts of the world that are oppressed. He even word a Palestinian sash while on stage to receive his diploma. Super proud of this brother and once commencement happened, we all found each other. I’ve met his parents at MMA fights over the last six months and they were happy to see me as well. I brought my camera and took a few posed and candid photos of the family together before we all went to Wally’s, a great restaurant here in Northeast Minneapolis across from Kung Fu Tea; one of my other favorite stops.
We ate together, then went our separate ways. I ran home and made dinner for my son, then got ready for a friends and family soft opening at the Yemeni coffee shop before tomorrow’s big day. I had a lot of work to get through and the vibes weren’t the same as the original location, so I took my tea and made the drive back to Roseville and there, for the rest of the night, I sat and caught up on some illustration, photo editing and a passion project I’ve put off for far too long. I’m laying there foundation for a vegan cookbook and recently did my first shoot of a perfect cream of asparagus soup. More on that in tomorrow’s Hive post. Have a great night!
